The automation system comprises or has access to a database in which automation-system-specific data is or can be filed. Eligible as automation-system-specific data are e.g. one or more control programs or sections of such control programs.
Different high-level languages have been developed for formulating control programs, so the database can comprise sections of such control programs in different high-level languages. Eligible here as high-level languages are, in particular, representation in the form of a function plan (FUP) or representation in the form of a contact plan (KOP). To access the data which the database comprises, appropriate tools, i.e. editors or development environments for example, are provided, by means of which the data can be created, modified or deleted.
An access to the data takes place using a database interface, and does so in such a way that all accesses to the data in the database takes place via one and the same database interface. When an access is made to the database, the particular datum to which the access relates is identified by a unique reference, e.g. by a reference in the manner of a filename or by a reference with an otherwise suitably selected unique identifier. Also eligible here is the address at which the particular datum is stored in the database, i.e. in particular its initial address in the database.
The term “datum” designates here and below any user-definable combination of simple, compound or abstract data types. Correspondingly, the terms “datum” and “object” are used synonymously.